Life’s Little Moments

I’ve been having fun on the blog in the last week or so. However, we’ve experienced our share of rough stuff at home. Hopefully, we’re working our way towards the end of it.

Germs!

It started with Ella about three weeks ago. She went to urgent care with a fever. They said it was an ear infection and sinus infection and to follow up with her primary doc. They confirmed what urgent care said and we did a round of antibiotics. She missed a week of school and went back. She hung on to a deep cough, but she had no fever. The cough continued and we took her back to the doctor who told us it was due to drainage. When she spiked another high fever, we were back at the doc who gave us another antibiotic.

Saturday, she wasn’t really herself. My brother was in town and she was kind of clingy. On Sunday, my brother was supposed to come back over, however, plans changed. Ella woke up with a fever of 105.1. So it was off to the ER.

She was miserable. They swabbed her to check for Covid, Strep, and any other virus. They gave her Motrin and the fever started to break. They took her for x-rays to check for pneumonia, too. We were there from 8:30am until about 2pm. No pneumonia, urinalysis was fine, chest was clear, but she does have a form of Coronavirus that is not Covid. She came home and immediately fell asleep on the couch.

She slept for almost five hours. Sam stayed up with Andrew while I was at the ER. When we got home she laid down to nap, too. My brother didn’t know how long we’d be and figured it was best to let Ella rest. He ended up going home early. So it was just me and Andrew.

We went outside and raked leaves. He was pretty proud of the big pile we made, and he wanted a picture.

Andrew, Sam and me have all had a cough. Sam seems to have gotten what Ella has. Andrew and I are just coughing. I hope this goes away!

Kit Kat Club?

Sam ordered a cat tree for the kitten. She is extremely playful and loves to claw at things. The hope is that she will sharpen her claws on it, and use it to rest. I don’t think that is going to be an issue….

Keith – AI

I was scrolling Facebook this week and something popped up. It was some AI thing that Facebook has. It said to have it “imagine” something and it would create it. You can say, “Imagine pigs flying” and bingo – there is a picture. So I said, “Imagine me as a radio DJ.” Real creative, right?

The first thing it did was took a picture of me from the front, and both sides. It had me upload a picture or two of me to aid it in the creation. Next thing I know….

Not bad, I suppose. Something is obviously wrong with my right hand as it only has three fingers! I’m not sure about the headphone cords … something isn’t right there. On another note, if I was really this thin, I’d be extremely happy!!!

Naturally, I had to try another. That one was too easy. So I said, “Imagine me as Columbo.” I meant, of course, Peter Falk’s iconic character. I never clarified that at all and wanted to see what it came up with. I’m not going to lie, it is kind of impressive.

They got the raincoat and messy hair, although most of it is covered by a hat. I may have to make this my profile picture on Facebook. It’s too good!

Ewe Never Know What You Might Ram Into …

Our town has a Facebook page. It is used to talk about events, traffic issues, and so on. The past week has been a real hoot. It seems that someone’s ram got loose and ran away.

The page began to fill with ram sightings all over town.

This thing was everywhere and they couldn’t seem to catch it.

It became quite humorous as people were creating memes and other photoshopped pictures with it. Those were funny, but I though the real photos were funnier.

I mean, here is this ram just out enjoying the sights and sounds of our town!

I won’t lie, I was actually a bit disappointed when they posted that he was finally caught and returned home.

He was so popular, I may write him in as my candidate for President!

Covid Update

Hello readers. I wanted to check in. I am still recovering from Covid and the flu. I’m not going to lie, it’s been an experience.

At work, we screen folks for Covid everyday. One of the things we ask is, “Do you have any flu-like symptoms?”. I tell you that because the one thing I’m having trouble figuring out is whether or not I am having issues with the flu or Covid.

I certainly have the flu stuff – cough, congestion, runny nose, and exhaustion. No vomiting, thank goodness. The other stuff has to be Covid – aches in the shoulder, worst headache ever, weird shooting pains up and down my legs, especially when I am trying to sleep, and of course, shortness of breath.

Thankfully, I have not had a fever since being diagnosed. One of the things I’ve had to do is track symptoms, so I’ve been checking it regularly.

My wife has had it a bit easier than me, although today she seems to be feeling worse than she has since this whole thing started. It’s weird. There are times you feel ok, then times you feel like a truck hit you.

She is off until at least the 15th, while I need to call one way or the other on the 13th to be cleared to go back. Technically, if I am symptom free (which I am not), I can go two days before then to get another test to see about going back. This seems to be hanging on, however.

When all this started, if someone contracted Covid, they stayed home AND got paid to do so. The hard part for us is that we made it over two years before we got it. Now we are home and we won’t be getting paid for our time off (which is far from a vacation).

We’ve tried to get outside and at least breathe some fresh air. The weather was nice over the weekend and it was nice to just relax on the porch. Ella was glad to get outside, too.

Thanks to all who have checked on us. We’re slowly getting better. Will write more soon – right now I’m off to check temperature and my pulse oximeter levels.

I Just Want To Make It All Better

As a parent, you hate to see your child sick. You feel helpless. All you want to do is take away the hurt. You want to make them feel better. You know that they are miserable and you would gladly bear their pain and suffering to allow them to get well.

The past few weeks have been hard on my little girl. Two weeks ago, she had yet another ear infection. After a full run of antibiotics, she began to show signs of being sick again. She spent a lot of time cuddling and laying next to me on the couch.

She had a slight fever yesterday and last night she was up almost all night inconsolable. I was at work, and Sam tried everything to get her to calm down. She finally calmed down early this morning and was able to sleep a little bit. She was asleep when I got home from work and Sam called her doctor to see if she could get her in.

The doctor said that her ear infection was actually worse. She was surprised that the week’s worth of the antibiotic didn’t touch it. She ran a bunch of tests to make sure it was not something else (Covid, RSV, Flu, etc) and they all came back negative. The ears have a lot of inflammation and so she has some ear drops to take as well as another antibiotic. We are hoping that this does the trick. If not, we could be looking at a hospital stay.

When she was born, she did not pass her hearing test in one ear. After retesting, she passed. However, at that time, they told us that she’d probably be prone to ear infections in that ear, and may even need tubes at some point. I believe we may be at that point. We’ve scheduled an appointment with an ENT and hope to have more answers after that.

In the meantime, we continue to pray that she feels better. Can I ask that you do the same? Thank you in advance.

I hope you feel better soon, my princess. I love you as big as the world!

XOXO

Daddy.

You Give Me Fever …

Been a crazy week here. Ella wasn’t feeling all that great Monday night and then woke up Tuesday with a 104 temp. We began to alternate the Tylenol/Motrin every four hours and were told that if the fever continued on Wednesday to do a Tele-Med visit. Wednesday morning, the fever was still there, so we did the video visit with the doc, who insisted that we bring her in.

Once we got to the office, the fever had broke, because we had given her Motrin before we left. The doc checked her out and she was diagnosed with another ear infection. We were told when she was born that she may have issues with her ears (There were issues with her newborn hearing tests.). Sam immediately asked about ear tubes. Did you know you have to get 6 ear infections in 12 months before they will even consider putting tubes in? I didn’t.

At any rate, she was sent home with an antibiotic and she’s been doing better. By Saturday, she was like her normal self. I was called off work Friday night, so I was able to get some sleep. Saturday was sunny and hot. We had heard about a splash pad near by and we decided to take Ella there. She loved it!

At first, she was a bit apprehensive, but once she saw other kids running around, she was screaming with joy and running all over the place.

We all got a little sun Saturday. I was hoping to go back there today with her while Sam slept, but she spiked her fever again. I kept her inside most of the day. I made a trip out to Meijer with her to pick up a few things and when I got back she walked right to her stroller. She signed “more” to me, and I knew we had to take a walk. Because it was so sunny, I didn’t want her out there too long, so we did a quick walk around the block.

After her nap, she wanted to go outside. I had filled her pool, and figured she might want to just play in it. She sat in it for a bit, but for the most part, she wandered around the yard, playing on her slide, and “sunbathing”

She’s been on the antibiotic for a few days now. I am hoping that she feels well enough to go to the splash pad tomorrow.